


Krakens & Curses: An Irreverent Fairytale

by seventhstar



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: A Story About Gay Teen Victuuri Disguised As A Fairytale, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Comedy, Cursed Victor Nikiforov, Fairy Tale Curses, Fairy Tale Style, M/M, Making Up My Own Mythology Because I Do What I Want, Tentacle Katsuki Yuuri, kraken - Freeform, this is not a serious fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 12:56:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17622785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seventhstar/pseuds/seventhstar
Summary: Yuuri is uncomfortable with humans.As far as he is concerned, his discomfort is entirely justified. Humans hunt krakens. Humans eat krakens. Humans tell stories about heroic kraken hunters and evil krakens to their children at night. Even when he takes human form—and the stories never talk about that,Yuuri thinks,it’s always just giant sea monsters eating their ships—Yuuri sticks out. He sprouts tentacles when he’s nervous. He talks to fish. He puts on a layer of blubber in the winter.(Okay, so krakens eat humans. Sometimes. It’s fine. Yuuri’s never eaten anyone.)





	Krakens & Curses: An Irreverent Fairytale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thishasbeencary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thishasbeencary/gifts).



> HAPPY BELATED BDAY CARY  
> have these tentacle hugs. have this story of gay teenagers masquerading as a fairytale

Yuuri is uncomfortable with humans.

As far as he is concerned, his discomfort is entirely justified. Humans hunt krakens. Humans eat krakens. Humans tell stories about heroic kraken hunters and evil krakens to their children at night. Even when he takes human form— _and the stories never talk about that,_ Yuuri thinks, _it_ _’s always just giant sea monsters eating their ships_ —Yuuri sticks out. He sprouts tentacles when he’s nervous. He talks to fish. He puts on a layer of blubber in the winter.

(Okay, so krakens eat humans. Sometimes. It’s fine. Yuuri’s never eaten anyone.)

In his tiny island village, Yuuri is safe: his family and friends are used to him. In the ocean, Yuuri is king: he’s bigger and badder than anything else underwater, other than other kraken. When he wanders, he swims from deserted island to deserted island, eating tropical fruits and exploring the reefs. (And he dances, in the deserted waters where no one can see.)

That’s how Yuuri finds the prince.

Whether he’s actually a prince, Yuuri doesn’t know. He’s never spoken to him; he’s never even been seen by him. He’d found him by accident. The prince lives on an island leagues from any other civilization, in a tower with no windows or doors. The beaches there are strewn with pearls; sometimes Yuuri finds gold wire and red rubies in the water.

The prince never appears during the day. But sometimes, at night, he comes out of his tower and sits on the rocks by the water. He wears layers and layers of black silk, and pearls: strands in his hair and around his neck, hanging from his ears, dangling from his hems and sleeves, dotted all over his clothes like stars.

He watches the waves. Yuuri, concealed by the darkness, watches him: invisible, unknown, fascinated.

Right until the night when the prince looks directly at him and says, “Oh, you’re back again!”

Yuuri tries to hide under the surface, but it’s too late; the prince is waving at him now.

“Hi!”

There’s no escaping now. Yuuri slinks up the side of the rocks, half man, half tentacle mess. Unlike the prince, Yuuri isn’t draped in silk and decorated with pearls. Unlike the prince, Yuuri is not actually wearing any clothes, and around his neck he has a string to hold his glasses. He puts them on.

“I thought you’d be a mermaid.”

“No.” Yuuri’s tentacles flail nervously. “I’m a kraken.”

“Shouldn’t you be bigger?”

“This is just one of my forms.”

“Like a dragon?”

“Yes?”

Yuuri doesn’t know any dragons, but being compared to one is better than being asked “are you a squid or an octopus” or whatever else it is humans ask. At least the prince isn’t screaming or running away.

“You come here a lot,” the prince says. “Why?”

“I…” Yuuri swallows, tentacles fading anxiously from black to grey. “I, uh, I like to look at you.”

“…really?’

“Yeah…”

They stare at each other. Up close, Yuuri can see that the prince has blue eyes. Sweat is dripping down his forehead. It’s sweltering out here, even at night, and Yuuri wonders how he can stand to wear so many layers of black. Yuuri’s wearing zero clothing and he still likes to sink down into the water to keep cool.

“I’ve never had a visitor before,” the prince says. He holds out a hand; there are several pearl bracelets on his wrist. “My name’s Viktor.”

“Yuuri.” Yuuri tries to give him his hand. Instead, he somehow ends up giving him a tentacle. He tries to jerk it back, but it’s too late; Viktor grabs it and shakes it. The suckers attach to his palm, and when he tries to let go, Yuuri’s tentacle just…stays there. Stuck to his palm.

This is why Yuuri doesn’t interact with humans, because either they want to kill him with harpoons or they want to kill him with humiliation.

“Well, Yuuri the kraken,” Viktor says, “I have to go. Will you come back?”

“If you want.”

“Tomorrow?”

There’s something strange and overeager in Viktor’s voice. And Yuuri’s never seen anyone else on the island, either. It must be a lonely place to live.

“Sure.”

 

* * *

 

“How long have you lived here?”

“Hmm?”

Yuuri knows Viktor heard him. He figured out early on that ‘hmm?’ is what Viktor says when he wanted to avoid answering a question. And Yuuri has a lot of questions. The more time he spends with Viktor, the more mysterious he seems. Why does he live alone in the middle of the ocean? What does he do all day? Why does he wear black silk and twenty pounds of pearls at all times? Why does he have to smile like that?

“How long have you lived here?”

“What constellation do you want to learn today?” Viktor asks. He’s progressed to avoidance tactic number two: outright lies.

Yuuri lets it go. He doesn’t want to fight.

“Are there any sea monster ones?”

Viktor hesitates. “Well…” he bites his lips. “There’s _The Kraken Hunter._ _”_

“Oh.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine, I know humans don’t…like us.”

“I do.” Viktor grabs his hand.

Yuuri smiles, despite himself. “I know,” he says.

“Aren’t your parents humans?”

“It’s different in my village. They adopted me when I was a baby, so they’re used to me. But when they tried to take me to the mainland…” Yuuri shrugs. “The rest of the kids in my village all go there. But it’s humans only.”

“Well, they’re dumb,” Viktor says, “I’ll be your human friend, Yuuri.”

Yuuri swallows the lump in his throat. He has human friends, but not like this. It’s different with Yuuko and Takeshi. They live next door to him, they can’t exactly avoid him. “Show me one you like.”

Viktor leans back, looking up at the stars. Yuuri starts to follow his gaze, but gets distracted by the sweat dripping down Viktor’s neck.

Every time Yuuri visits, Viktor teaches him a constellation. Viktor knows everything about constellations: what each star in them is called, what myths go with which ones, how to use them to navigate. When they’re apart, Yuuri likes to float in the ocean by his house and practice finding them. Somehow, though, the stars are never as bright there as they are here.

“You can’t see my favorite from here,” Viktor says. “We’re too far south.”

Yuuri scoops up a handful of pearls and sand. “Here,” he says. “Can you draw it?”

In the wet sand, Viktor arranges the pearls in the shape of what looks like an animal, on four legs.

“Is it a bear?”

“It’s a dog.”

“Oh, I love dogs.”

“Me too! But Makkachin couldn’t come with me.” Viktor shrugs. He sweeps everything back into the water, pearls and all. “It’s for the best. She’d been bored out here.”

Yuuri opens his mouth, to ask Viktor again where he came here from, or to say ‘I’m sorry’ or to ask him about the pearls all over the beach, but none of those things come out of his mouth. Yuuri blurts out random words when he’s nervous just as he squirts ink when he’s startled. Non sequiturs are the ink of his mouth.

“You’re hot.” He slaps a tentacle over his mouth. “It. It’s hot. The weather.”

“Your weather is hot, too,” Viktor says. He winks.

 

* * *

 

The island Viktor lives on is far from any other island, and well out of the way of the currents that ships use to travel. Which is why, when Yuuri shows up one night to find a pirate ship anchored off the shore, he panics.

The pirates have started a fire on the beach and are drinking; several of them are wandering around, picking pearls out of the sand and filling their pockets. Yuuri doesn’t see Viktor anywhere, at least. Which means either he’s safe inside the tower or he’s been captured and is on the ship somewhere.

Yuuri hesitates. He could wreck the ship pretty easily, but if he does, the pirates will be stuck on the island. He drops deep into the water and circles around, away from the crowded beach, until he can surface without being seen. Then he climbs up the rocks, tentacles twisting together until they become legs, and starts searching. There’s not many places to hide on the island, and Yuuri has no idea how to get into the tower, since it has no doors or windows. He’s not even sure what’s he’s looking for, other than some sign of a struggle.

There’s a scrap of black silk stuck in the bark of a palm tree near the tower. Yuuri looks down at the sand. There’s no footsteps, but the sand’s been swept oddly.

He follows the trail back to the shore. Behind the tower, there’s a cliff overlooking the water. Yuuri sprouts two tentacles to cling to the cliff edge and dangles. There’s a cave set into the cliff, water lapping at the entrance.

_Aha,_ Yuuri thinks. _If I were going to hide from pirates_ _…well, I’d just swim away really fast. Or eat them. But if I was a human, I’d go in there._

It’s not a large cave. Yuuri definitely wishes he ate fewer pork cutlet bowls as he goes deeper and deeper inside. Eventually, the cave opens up onto a pool of clear water. There’s a rock in the middle, and sitting on that rock is Viktor. He’s dripping wet and shivering, and he’s hanging onto the rock with white-knuckled hands.

“Hi.”

“Yuuri! You scared me.”

“Come on,” Yuuri says. He holds out his tentacles. “Let’s get out of here.”

“I can’t—there are pirates.”

“You can ride me! My house isn’t that far. You can stay with me and—”

“I can’t.” Viktor swallows. “I can’t leave the island. I’m cursed.”

“Oh. Is that why the pirates…?”

“No, I don’t think so. They weren’t looking for me.”

Yuuri opens his mouth to ask Viktor what kind of curse and then decides now is not the time. Viktor looks like one hard question might knock him into the water. He curls himself around the rock so that he’s level with Viktor’s knees; is it his imagination, or is the water rising?

“Uh,” Yuuri says. “Is the tide coming in?”

“This cave wasn’t underwater when I got here.”

“We should go.”

Viktor shakes his head. Yuuri looks again at his hands, gripping the rock for dear life, and at Viktor’s heavy, totally unsuitable outfit.

“You can’t swim.”

“There wasn’t actually any water where I grew up,” Viktor says faintly. “Just ice.”

“Just hang on to me.” Yuuri holds out his tentacles again. “It’ll be fine.”

Viktor takes a deep breath. He closes his eyes, which seems foolhardy to Yuuri considering Viktor can’t swim, and topples forward off the rock. Yuuri catches him, arms and tentacles winding around him, until Viktor resembles a chrysalis instead of a boy. Viktor clings to Yuuri’s shoulders like a barnacle on a whale’s belly.

Yuuri’s never swum while carrying someone else in this form before. Normally he just turns into a sea monster and lets them ride on his back. He decides there is no reason for Viktor to ever know this.

Viktor is nice and warm, despite being all wet. And silk is stuck really closely to him. And he has abs. Not that Yuuri’s noticed or anything.

 

* * *

 

“These are for you.”

Yuuri stares. Viktor’s holding out a jar full of pearls—not the tiny ones all over the beach, but a jar of enormous pearls in all colors. He has no idea what they’re worth, but it’s way, way more than Yuuri deserves for the onerous task of carrying one human a few hundred feet. In the ocean. Which is Yuuri’s natural habitat.

“It’s fine…”

“I cried them all at once, so I’m not sure how powerful they’ll be,” Viktor says, “but you can put them in water to make a healing potion, or in your pocket for good luck, or in your icebox to keep food from going bad—”

“You _cried_ them?”

“My tears turn into magic pearls,” Viktor explains, like that’s just a normal thing that happens. “So—”

“I don’t want a _jar of your tears!_ That’s weird!” Yuuri waves his hands frantically; one of his tentacles splashes water in agitation. “I mean, it’s not weird that you’re cursed, but it’d be depressing to just have a jar of your tears sitting around…anyway, I didn’t really do anything except swim around, so you don’t have to thank me.”

“Oh.”

Viktor’s face is odd; Yuuri can’t tell if he’s pleased or not. But he puts the jar to the side, at least. Yuuri glances at it again and shudders. He wonders what Viktor was crying about, to fill a whole jar. Maybe he was thinking about dogs. Then Yuuri remembers the beach covered with pearls, and the total lack of any pearl-producing sea creatures, and winces.

“Do you see that cluster of stars up there?” Viktor points. “Do you see how the other stars trail it?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s called _The Kraken._ _”_

“Really? Where’s it from?”

“Nowhere. I made it up for you.” Viktor smiles. “See? Now there’ll be at least one story about krakens where they’re the heroes.”

 

* * *

 

So it turns out the outfit isn’t part of Viktor’s curse, he just doesn’t have any other clothes. As Yuuri discovers when he offers to teach Viktor how to swim and Viktor responds by stripping. He’s wearing an undergarment. The undergarment is also made out of black silk.

_Cool,_ Yuuri thinks. At least his half-kraken form doesn’t get spontaneous erections. Thank god for cephalopod physiology.

“Okay,” Viktor says. “How do I swim?”

“Uh,” Yuuri says. He’s not sure how this works for humans, with their inflexible and limited number of limbs. There’s kicking, he recalls. He holds out his arms. “Get in the water and I’ll show you.”

Viktor slides off the rock. He latches onto Yuuri immediately; Yuuri pushes off the rock and starts swimming backwards, into deeper water. He feels Viktor’s nails dig into his back as the shore gets further and further away.

“That’s enough,” he mumbles into Yuuri’s shoulder. “The curse won’t let me go much further.”

“Okay,” Yuuri says. He wraps two tentacles around Viktor’s waist, and pushes him off so that he’s being held a few feet away from Yuuri—close enough that Yuuri can easily help him, but not so close that he’ll be in Viktor’s way. The water is perfectly clear, even this far out, and there aren’t any fish. Something about the island seems to keep them away, Yuuri notices. Normally smaller fish don’t mind Yuuri’s presence.

He lets go of Viktor. Viktor promptly drops down under the surface.

“Wait—fuck—” Yuuri hauls Viktor back to the surface. He’s coughing and rubbing at his eyes. “Sorry! I thought you’d float!”

There are pearls on Viktor’s cheeks as the saltwater burns his eyes. He spits up a mouthful of water and a piece of seaweed.

“I’ve changed my mind, I don’t need to swim.”

“You live on an _island._ _”_

“I’ll just stay in the shallow water.”

“Have you seen how steep the seabed is? There’s barely any shallow water.” Yuuri brushes Viktor’s bangs off his face with a tentacle. The suckers stick to his forehead, leaving a faint red circle right in the middle.

“I’ll try,” Viktor says. He coughs again.

Yuuri tips Viktor onto his back, holding him at the surface of the water. “Okay, hold out your arms and legs.”

“Like a snow angel?”

“What’s a snow angel?”

“You can make them in the sand, I’ll show you later.” Viktor extends his limbs, head tipped back so that the water laps at his ears. Yuuri comes up behind him and cradles his head in his hands. Viktor’s wet hair is soft; he’s taken all the jewelry off for their lesson, but he’s still wearing the earrings, which wave back and forth with the waves.

He closes his eyes. Yuuri extends his limbs, just in case this goes horribly wrong again, and lets go.

Viktor floats.

 

* * *

 

“If you could go anywhere, where would you go?”

“The White Sea.”

“The White Sea?”

“Yeah…to see the wave dancing.”

“Yuuri! You wave dance?”

“…a little.”

“You never told me that. I want to see.”

“It’s nothing special. What about you?”

“Me? I’d be happy to go anywhere that wasn’t this island.”

“But if you could go anywhere…”

“When the weather was good, we used to climb up onto the glaciers and skate where it was flat. We’d have performances, and the winner would get a gold coin as a prize. That’s where I would go.”

“Did you ever win?”

“Every year.”

“That’s amazing.”

“I thought so, too. Until I was cursed.”

 

* * *

 

Yuuri can’t imagine being such a bitter, deranged asshole that he’d curse someone for beating him at a skating contest. Not even a minor hex, like how Yuuri used to put live fish in Mari’s food when he was little because she mocked him relentlessly. The warlock who’d cursed Viktor had gone to the effort of sacrificing a mountain goat and eating it—raw and frozen—to fuel the curse. According to Viktor, the average mountain goat weighed twice what a human did, was always ready to fight, and had been known to kill wolves. The whole thing seems excessive.

Viktor had described the night he’d been cursed to Yuuri, with a detachment that broke his heart. He’d gone to sleep after winning and woken up on a beach, alone.

“But why’d he make you cry pearls?” Yuuri asks.

“Pearls are expensive. Especially in the north, where we live, they have to be imported.”

“Wait a minute. He collects your tears?”

“There are jars in the tower. I have to fill them to get supplies.”

“I will bring you supplies,” Yuuri says flatly. He grabs Viktor’s bare shoulders. _“Please stop crying.”_

“Sometimes I give him hair or blood instead,” Viktor says cheerfully. “Rubies are expensive, too. But I don’t like pulling out my hair. What if I get bald spots?”

“You what.” So that’s why there’s gold wire and giant rubies scattered around the seabed. Is Viktor just washing his wounds in the ocean? Has no one explained to him that’s unsanitary? Is this why Viktor’s forehead is so large? “How does he collect the jars?”

“He comes every few months.”

“What?”

“He has a haunted ship.”

_I_ _’ll fight him,_ Yuuri thinks, though actually he’s not sure how he’d fight a witch. Supposedly human magic doesn’t work on kraken, but Yuuri hasn’t met any other kraken or any other warlocks. He’s not keen on testing the theory. Maybe fighting the warlock isn’t the answer.

Even as Yuuri thinks this, he can feel the barbs on his tentacles emerging. Venom is starting to seep out into the water, and he has to hold them up above the surface before he accidentally poisons Viktor. When Yuuri was a kid, he’d lose control whenever he was hungry and go hunting for fish until he was full. He has that same urge now.

_So this is why we destroy ships._

“Yuuri?”

“What?”

“You’re making a weird face. What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing,” Yuuri lies. “Listen, if you tell me what supplies you need, I’ll get them for you.”

“Really? Wow. Here,” Viktor pulls off the pearl necklace he’s wearing. For some reason, now that he can swim, he insists on wearing all his jewelry in the water. He’s still not wearing clothes, so Yuuri’s not sure what the deal with that is. It looks pretty, though. “You can use this to pay for things.”

“But I—”

“Shh.”

Viktor puts a finger to Yuuri’s lips. He’s treading water, close enough that Yuuri could wind his tentacles around his legs, close enough that Yuuri can see the drops of seawater on his face.

“I want you to have them. Okay?”

Yuuri’s only capable of so much rational thought per visit. He’s too dazed to do anything but nod.

 

* * *

 

Krakens are predators.

Yuuri’s friends and family forget this. Yuuri himself forgets this; it’s hard to feel like a predator when he still has chores to do at home and can’t work up the courage to dance for Viktor no matter how many times Viktor asks.

But now the urge to hunt is under his skin, is an itch in his scales like he’s molting. He finds himself trailing ships, staring up at their fragile wooden bellies, thinking about how easily he could wreck them. He eats fish raw, savoring the crunch of the bones. His teeth feel sharper.

(He’s had to stop eating in public. The way fish guts drip down his face apparently freaks people out.)

Viktor doesn’t talk about his curse. Yuuri doesn’t ask. On the nights when they aren’t together, Yuuri lurks, deep in dark water, waiting for a haunted ship to pass.

“You didn’t come yesterday.”

“Sorry.”

“You’re holding my leg again,” Viktor says. “You only do that when you’re worried.”

Yuuri reluctantly detaches, leaving a row of sucker marks on Viktor’s calf. He can’t help it; his tentacles do what they want. He wants to drag Viktor off the island and dump him on the beach outside Yuuri’s house, where he can get a hot meal without having to cry for it. His parents give him packages of food and clothes without asking for details—presumably adopting a sea monster baby has increased their capacity for weirdness—but it’s not the same.

There are ships that sail from the mainland, just hours from Yuuri’s island home, to every corner of the world. Viktor has a fortune in pearls. It would be nothing for him to pay one of them to take him home.

_But I_ _’d miss him,_ Yuuri thinks, before shaking his head. _As if_ that _matters._

“You’re doing it again.”

“Sorry.”

“Is something wrong?” Viktor asks. “Is it because it’s almost time for the festivals on the White Sea?”

“How did you know that?” Yuuri asks. For a moment he has the horrifying thought that Viktor can read his mind, which would be the worst thing because Yuuri has a lot of feelings about Viktor’s face and his chest and his ankles. Then he remembers that he gave Viktor this fact, last week, to distract him from asking Yuuri any questions about his absences.

He’s played himself.

“Why don’t you go?”

“I told you, I can’t dance.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I’d probably get harpooned,” Yuuri mumbles. _Or humiliated._ “Besides, it’s really far away. You’d be alone.”

“You can’t give up on your dreams because of me,” Viktor says. “Besides, it’s not like I can go anywhere, I’ll be here when you come back.”

“I’m not gonna abandon you to that stupid goat-eating warlock—”

“Don’t you understand how happy I am now?” Viktor throws himself at Yuuri. His weight pulls them both down—he’s right there and Yuuri nearly forgets how to swim—before he bobs back up with Viktor hanging off his neck. “Having you here is the only good thing that’s happened to me since I was cursed.”

“Viktor, I—”

“So you should also be happy, and stop making excuses for why you won’t chase your dreams. You should do it now, today. You never know what might happen.”

It’s good advice. It doesn’t ease any of Yuuri’s crippling guilt at the thought of leaving Viktor alone again, but it’s still a kind thing to say. For a moment, Yuuri feels like he could dance in the White Sea.

 

* * *

 

The warlock’s ship is black.

It’s not glossy, like paint would be; the wood itself is dark, like it was harvested in some cursed forest, or made from the remains of some burned-down town. The sails are tattered, and it’s surrounded by a dense white fog. Yuuri has to climb up the stern to get a good look at it, tentacles spread out like a starfish’s legs to keep him from falling. Despite the torn sails, it cuts swiftly through the water, moving in a supernaturally straight line towards Viktor’s island.

Yuuri sucks in a deep breath as he drops down underneath it. Then he lets go.

Human form Yuuri is a normal sized boy. Half-kraken Yuuri is a normal sized boy from the waist up and tentacles from the waist down.

Full kraken Yuuri is bigger than several whales, a hundred tentacles, and a mouth big enough to take bites out of ships. Suddenly the ship looks like a toy, a delicious wooden toy filled with delicious human snacks. Not that Yuuri eats people. Except maybe today.

He grabs onto the ship and lifts it. Someone screams from onboard. He lifts it higher, higher, until there’s room for a second ship to fit underneath it. Then he flips it upside down.

A tiny human falls out and lands with a splash in the water. He doesn’t look like goat-sacrificing material, possibly because he takes one look at Yuuri and immediately starts screaming. He’s underwater; all he does is inhale ocean water and flail.

Yuuri snaps the ship in half, and then gets to the fun part: smashing up it up with his tentacles until the water is foamy and the ship’s been reduced to splinters. Cowardly Warlock has made it to the surface and latched onto a floating piece of wood. He’s pointing at Yuuri with what’s supposed to be a wand, Yuuri guesses. It looks like a femur.

It’s also not doing anything. _Cool,_ Yuuri thinks, _that whole krakens being immune to magic thing is real._

“Leave me alone! Begone, monster!”

Yuuri debates just dangling him over his open mouth until he feels cooperative, then decides that maybe he should try communicating with his words first.

He shrinks back down until he and the warlock are the same size. At the sight of him approaching, the warlock shrieks and tries to swim away. Unfortunately, his four human limbs are totally useless. Humans, Yuuri has noticed, are really bad at swimming. He hasn’t told Viktor this, since Viktor’s really proud of the fact he can go in the water without drowning now, but sometimes Yuuri watches him swim and wonders how humans manage to live on islands and not die.

“Go away or I’ll curse you!”

“Take the curse off Viktor or I’ll eat you.”

“What—Viktor? The prince?”

Inwardly, Yuuri clenches a fist triumphantly. He knew it. “Yeah, him. The one who beat you.”

“Not anymore! I’ve got plenty of gold coins now.”

“I will seriously bite you in half.”

“Wait, wait. Okay. If you don’t eat me, I’ll give you half the take. As many jewels and pearls as you want.”

Yuuri sighs and grabs the warlock’s legs with his tentacles. He pulls. The piece of wood drifts away, and suddenly Yuuri’s tentacles are the only things between the warlock and eminent death.

“I’ll do it! Just let me live!”

 

* * *

 

Viktor is waiting on the rocks when Yuuri arrives, warlock in tow. He looks more princely than ever, but not in a good way. He’s decked out in jewels and pearls and black silk, and his expression is icy. His arms are folded over his chest like he’s a disappointed dad.

“Viktor!”

“Yuuri.” Viktor glares at him. He stays standing, so that’s he’s looking down and Yuuri has to crane his neck to meet his eyes. “From now on, we can’t be friends any more. I’m not going to be your excuse for being a quitter.”

“..what?”

Yuuri’s only defense for why he starts crying is that he’s just destroyed a ship and threatened to kill a man, and is in exactly the wrong emotional state to be insulted by his crush.

“Why would you say that to me?”

Viktor’s face has gone from ice prince to panicked boy. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!”

“That doesn’t make it okay for you to say!”

“I just want you to have your dream!”

“Me, too!” Yuuri throws the warlock onto the shore. Possible a little too hard. It’s fine, the warlock should be grateful Yuuri isn’t eating him.

“…Cao Bin?”

“Prince Viktor, ahaha…it’s great to see you.” Cao Bin waves his femur wand at Viktor vaguely. “No hard feelings about the whole being cursed thing, right?”

“I can and will have you executed for treason.”

Cao Bin flees. Yuuri lets him go; they’re on an island, it’s not like he can escape.

“Viktor?”

Viktor is stripping. Yuuri doesn’t even have time to have gay emotions about it, because as soon as his clothes are off Viktor jumps into the water and starts thrashing through the water away from the island. He cuts through the ocean faster than Yuuri has ever seen him go, further and further, until they reach the boundary of the curse.

Viktor keeps going. He swims out another fifteen feet and then stops, gasping and treading, face red from exertion. He stares back at the island—at his prison—with a look Yuuri’s never seen on his face before.

“Hey,” Yuuri says. He pushes Viktor’s wet hair back. “You’re crying.”

“These are happy tears.”

“And no pearls.”

Both of them move at the same time. Yuuri holds out all ten of his limbs, and Viktor wraps his arms around Yuuri’s human torso, and then Viktor’s cocooned safely, held tight, and probably going to be covered in sucker marks. He has to wear clothes when he meets my parents, Yuuri thinks.

Viktor’s forehead is against his. Yuuri is about to say something, he doesn’t know what, but Viktor beats him to it.

“Why are you covered in splinters?”

“Uh. No reason.”

“You’re extremely heroic,” Viktor says firmly. He does not give Yuuri a chance to protest. Yuuri opens his mouth to point out that he literally threatened to eat a man and Viktor kisses him before he can get out one word.

Maybe humans aren’t so bad after all.


End file.
